Steve Barkley Ponders Out Loud

The authors of, "High Five to Thrive: 5 Proven Practices to Unleash Your Passion for Teaching" share their strategies to assist teachers to experience thriving in teaching. Their strategies tackle these issues: A loss of purpose - Is the passion that once fueled you fading? A feeling of hopelessness -Have you ever felt like no matter what you do, it’s not enough? Unhelpful mindset patterns - Do yo...

Tim Smyth, a high school teacher, shares his strategies for regularly surveying his students to build valuable connections. Hear some of the questions and approaches that tap information about his students. Tim has experienced knowing students better, having students know him, and at times knowing students who need emotional help. Instructional coaches can use Tim’s voice to spark teachers’ thinki...

Have you witnessed this in your classroom or had teachers share it as a coaching request? "When the cognitive load rises, many students default to learned- helplessness or passive habits. I see it in the quick, 'I don’t get it' before they have engaged with the problem, in the immediate search for confirmation rather than justification, and in the quiet waiting for me to circulate rather than maki...

With effective facilitation, individual PLC members come together combining each one’s unique strengths to promote optimal team performance. Without effective facilitation PLC conversations often stray without a focus and disappoint PLC members concerning the payoffs for their invested time. Angela Buckingham and Elena Sammon share strategies for building PLC leaders facilitation skills and model...

When a teacher is planning a learning activity, what’s the movie that’s running in their mind? Are they mostly seeing what they are doing as a teacher or what their learners are doing? When teachers, like athletic and performing arts coaches, focus on the student learning actions they modify instructional moves as soon as recognizing that the needed learning behaviors are missing. Coaches can obse...

The authors of "Intentional Influence: Harnessing Cultural Mapping to Build Commitment," share their insights that enable leaders to reflect, explore step-by-step processes, and take concrete actions to impact culture and learning across their "spheres of influence.” By employing Cultural Mapping, leaders can create a personnel map of influence and thus support hidden flow of influence, and apply...

Professional Learning Communities don’t automatically produce collaboration or impact. They often require skilled facilitation to keep the focus on high quality learning for all students and teachers. A facilitator provides the structure, prompts, and emotional conditions that help members engage deeply, share openly, and turn reflection into meaningful next steps. How can facilitators plan for th...

What payoffs are possible if students, who were assigned to serve detention, had the option to take a two -hour hike in the woods with a guidance counselor instead? High school counselor, Leslie Trundy, shares her experiences with the” hike as detention” plan. Trundy, guides the hikes including a stop with a view, a snack, and a short poem focused on starting anew. Consider what you want students...

What are the compelling "whys" for teachers to invest their time and vulnerability in professional learning communities?  How do professional learning communities differ from professional working communities? When are teachers meeting as a franchise vs meeting as a team with shared accountability? Shared goals and accountability for success are keys to effective PLCs. Read "Professional learning v...

What would be the benefits of ALL students being taught and coached to develop leadership skills? Maureen Chapman and James Simons, authors of, "Leaders of the Class," share the needs, benefits, and processes for students to leverage motivation, perseverance, communication, and collaboration. Consider how to build stronger, healthier relationships with students as they discover their potential as...

I heard about a great experience illustrating awe in learning that was shared by a group of middle school students and their teacher in Grand Island, New York. They joined me on this podcast sharing their reflections and insights. As you hear their story consider where these elements of Awe appeared: Awe occurs when we experience something much larger than ourselves Awe leads to the need to refram...

How do the words teachers hear from school leaders, instructional coaches and peers provide an uplift and motivation? Are there time that the words teachers hear create a subtle source of stress, confusion, or disengagement? Our language can be a vehicle through which expectations, emotions, and commitments are transmitted.  What we say—and just as importantly, what we don’t say—can directly influ...

How do you ensure your students are reading your feedback, digesting it, and using it to improve? Alexis Wiggins explores the connections between reflection and feedback. She shares her personal experiences around revision-based assessments, AI possibilities, and modeling her use of feedback from student surveys. Read Alexis’ article, "Feedback That Matters" here. Watch the "Austin’s Butterfly" vi...

Some instructional coaches are starting the year with teachers who are new to the profession—and some with teachers who are entering the classroom without any teacher education background. What do these teachers believe defines classroom management, and where should a coach begin? Many instructional coaches are also hearing highly experienced teachers say, “I’ve never had a student like this befor...

Jennifer D. Klein, the author of, "Taming the Turbulence in Educational Leadership: Doing Right by Learners Without Losing Your Job," shares the need for leaders to support teachers who frequently struggle with false dichotomies like knowledge vs skills or play vs academics. Teachers and leaders often feel isolated and threatened in their efforts to prioritize what learners need most.  Change work...

Amber Chandler, the author of "Everything New Teachers Need to Know But Are Afraid to Ask," shares a program her district implemented to address that 140 out of its 478 teachers have been with the district four years or less—and the ranks of untenured teachers are expected to swell to 250 in the next five years. That’s approximately half of the teaching staff needing support, not just in year one,...

The Executive Director of Counselling in Schools, Kevin Dahill-Fuchel, explores the environments needed for students to thrive in school and survive in life. A key to that environment is a staff that can manage their emotions personally and be resilient so that they support students authentically. What role do instructional coaches and school leaders play in supporting teachers’ emotional safety a...

Every educator sends signals to students that, consciously or unconsciously, determine who experiences belonging—and who doesn’t. When students perceive they do not belong, they are at risk for a host of adverse consequences. Conversely, when students feel a sense of belonging, it can lead to an abundance of positive personal, social, and academic outcomes. How can instructional coaches and school...

Research tells us that awe increases motivation and connection to learning, enhances critical thinking and careful information processing, encourages empathy and prosocial behavior, and supports creativity. What’s the plan for teachers and students first days of school? Are you more likely to hear ‘wow” and “awe” or “ Oh, no.” Explore some possibilities. Find Steve's book "WOW! Adding Pizzazz to T...

Feedback doesn’t create learning by itself—learning happens when students reflect on, act upon, and integrate feedback into their work.  Teachers don’t cause student achievement. Students do. Our role as educators is to design environments, tasks, and relationships that enable students to produce the learning behaviors that generate achievement. One of those critical learning behaviors is knowing...

Instructional Coaches and school administrators should be continuously mapping out how they support teacher leaders in their schools. Teacher leaders at grade levels or department chairs for curriculum, along with teachers leading programs or projects and those serving as mentors to new staff are all key to a school reaching its mission and vision of maximizing student success. Too often, there is...

Planning for the start of a new school year, we should intentionally design for playfulness, connection, and flow—the  elements that are core to fun and joy.  It’s not just about better lessons— but better experiences. Experiences that students will remember, that teachers will find energizing, and that build both engagement and joy. Whether it’s a surprise horse outside a classroom window or a re...

"Coachability is a crucial mindset that builds individual and teacher efficacy and thus student success. Coaching conversations should have a human connectedness built on hope, trust, gratitude, strength, and purpose." (Jennifer Fraser, 2025, Leading with Hope and Kindness) Listen for human connections in a sample coaching pre-conference. [podbean resource="episode=" type="audio-rectangle" height=...

Listen as an experienced post -secondary professor and Dean of Computing and Data Science shares her insights as she assumes the position of the Head of School at a 7-12 independent school, the New England Innovation Academy. Dr. Durga Suresh-Menon provides a definition of innovation and discusses the need for curriculum and instruction to be continuously relevant. How do students prepare for what...

Patrick Mongrain, an experienced teacher and teacher coach, shares a message comparing the use of data to drive smarter decisions in the movie Moneyball to providing teachers with data to analyze their instructional classroom moves. He describes the role of 8 high level strategies such as building community and relationships, providing opportunities to respond, and positive and corrective feedback...